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Prison in the Krasnoyarsk Territory (photo from 2022)
Photo: Ilya Naymushin / SNA / IMAGO
The Russian region of Krasnoyarsk apparently wants to close several prisons due to the lack of capacity. However, as the newspaper Kommersant reports, among others, the measure is not related to reduced crime.
The prisons should be closed for reasons of "optimization" after many criminals were pardoned in view of their involvement in the Ukrainian war, the region's human rights commissioner, Mark Denisov, told the newspaper.
According to him, the penal camps in the towns of Gromadsk and Arejskoye are affected. Gromadsk is mainly home to repeat offenders. Areyskoye is a camp for serious criminals. According to the dpa news agency, the best-known prisoner there is the journalist Ivan Safronov, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for alleged high treason in a controversial trial in 2022 and is internationally considered a political prisoner.
Human rights commissioner criticizes decision
Denisov criticized the decision to close the camps. The social structure did not change as a result of the war, and the prisons would probably be needed again in five years, he said.
There is no official information on the number of prisoners recruited for the war in Russia. However, especially in the first year of the war, the media reported on the mass recruitment of prisoners - especially by the now dead mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
At the time, we were talking about tens of thousands of men who were recruited by the mercenary force while in prison and then sent to the front. Official statistics from Russian prisons had also shown a significant decline in the number of prisoners.
The recruitment of new fighters from prisons is no longer carried out by the Wagner Group, but directly by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
fek/Reuters/dpa